In Philadelphia, the cheesesteak isn't just a sandwich, it's an institution. It is a symbol of the City of Brotherly Love, as much as Rocky or the Liberty Bell, and it has spawned thousands of food stands, carts, trucks, and restaurants around the country. The simple yet unforgettable sandwich contains chopped or sliced steak, cheese, and often onions on a soft roll with a crisp exterior.
It may come as a surprise, then, to know that the original sandwich was missing something fans look at as crucial to its construction: cheese. Pat Olivieri is considered the inventor of the Philly cheesesteak. In the 1930s, he owned and operated a hot dog stand in a predominantly Italian neighborhood in South Philadelphia.
One day, Olivieri decided to cook up some scrap meat (not to be confused with ) from a nearby butcher shop and serve it on a bun without any cheese. He only intended for this beef sandwich to be his own lunch, but a passing cab driver tasted it and loved it, as did Olivieri. From then on out, Olivieri began selling steak sandwiches from his hot dog cart.
Beefsteak sandwiches did exist at the time, but Olivieri changed up the seasonings and the bread, making the sandwich an original. He eventually obtained a building right across the street from his cart, which became the iconic Pat's King of Steaks. When did the cheese come along? It wasn't until the 1940s that Pat's began putting cheese on its steak sandwiches, and Olivieri's establishment was the first steak sandwich bus.
